Bosnia's Basic & Dzumhur Continue Dream Week

While #NextGenATP Daniil Medvedev did well in Moscow to move into the final qualifying position in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan, the story of the week took over at the VTB Kremlin Cup, a tournament Bosnian tennis fans will not soon forget.

With two Bosnians in an ATP World Tour quarter-final at the same tournament for the first time, the nation’s duo went one better, with qualifier Mirza Basic and sixth seed Damir Dzumhur both advancing to the semi-finals.

Basic, playing in his first ATP World Tour quarter-final, beat 21-year-old Russian Medvedev, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to advance to his first semi-final in one hour and 41 minutes.

The Bosnian, who is at No. 209 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, had not played an ATP World Tour main draw match this season before arriving in Moscow, and has made the most of the opportunity. Despite losing the first set in just 30 minutes and falling behind a break in the second set, Basic would not be denied. The 26-year-old won 10 of the final 11 games to capture his fifth win of the week.

If that victory wasn’t enough, Dzumhur guaranteed that a Bosnian would reach the final by setting up a clash against his Davis Cup teammate, also coming back from a set down to defeat ATP World Tour veteran Andreas Seppi, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

“I was playing good,” Dzumhur said. “It’s always tricky in three sets, it could go both ways. It just seems like I’m a little bit more fit mentally here in Moscow…everything is good. Today was a really tough match from the beginning.”

The first two Bosnians to compete in the main draw of a Grand Slam have played three times on the ITF Futures Circuit, with Dzumhur winning on two of three occasions. The favoured World No. 38 is seeking the second title of his career, after capturing glory for the first time at the St. Petersburg Open last month.

On the other half of the draw, the top seed remaining, No. 3 Adrian Mannarino, overcame a game Dudi Sela, 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-2 in just over two hours. The Frenchman will have an opportunity to reach his third final of the year and his fifth overall, as the left-hander is still in pursuit of his first ATP World Tour title. The World No. 29 will play Ricardas Berankis, who battled past #NextGenATP Alexander Bublik, 7-5, 6-1. Mannarino beat Berankis in straight sets at this year’s US Open.